Tennis individuals eyeing state berths

By Todd Fuqua

Ruidoso’s tennis schedule changed this past week – again – after Silver cancelled an appearance at a triad in Las Cruces on April 10.

However, Warrior coach James Cantu doesn’t anticipate any further upheavals. He’s just working to get his students through the rest of the season and maybe, just maybe, get a few individuals to the Class 4A/1A State tournament.

With only four girls and five boys, Cantu doesn’t have a full team on either side – a far cry from what he had at the beginning of the season. This means Ruidoso’s matches against Mesilla Valley on Monday and at Portales on Tuesday were blowouts.

“The issue isn’t that we can’t compete with them, we just don’t have the depth they do,” said Ruidoso coach James Cantu. “A lot of the scores (against Mesilla) were tight in the first set. Then in the second set, they tended to slip away. The same thing happened at Portales.”

But the kids are learning, and those that already had experience – such as Sydney Davis, David Marshall and Alex King – have a fairly good shot at getting to state as individuals.

“It depends on how the cards fall,” Cantu said. “If the boys in the other schools decided to compete in doubles, then I could have Alex and David going somewhere as singles. If the other boys stay in singles, then these two could conceivably do a run as a doubles team.

“I’m not sure where Sydney would want to go, but I could see her doing both singles and doubles,” he added.

Ruidoso still has two more dates against Silver in Las Cruces and vs. Moriarty in Albuquerque in the next two weeks before heading to Roswell, April 29, for the District 4-4A/1A tournament.

It’s a two-day district tournament, but the Warriors will only be going on day 2, as they’ll only be competing for individual titles.